BooksBarbecue
Back Daughter of Eden Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Title page
  2. Dedication
  3. Part I
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 20. 20:25 MT.
  30. Part II
  31. Twenty-six
  32. Twenty-seven
  33. Twenty-eight
  34. Twenty-nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-one
  37. Thirty-two
  38. Thirty-three
  39. Thirty-four
  40. Thirty-five
  41. Thirty-six
  42. Thirty-seven
  43. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 22. 20:05 MT.
  44. Thirty-eight
  45. Thirty-nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-one
  48. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 25. 15:30 MT.
  49. Forty-two
  50. Forty-three
  51. Forty-four
  52. Forty-five
  53. Forty-six
  54. Forty-seven
  55. Forty-eight
  56. Forty-nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-one
  59. Fifty-two
  60. Fifty-three
  61. Fifty-four
  62. Part III
  63. Fifty-five
  64. Fifty-six
  65. Fifty-seven
  66. Fifty-eight
  67. Also by Chris Beckett
  68. Copyright page

‘Four five wakings across the Dark,’ said Strongheart’s son, Leader Harry. He was a big man, with thick hair over the backs of his arms and hands, hair poking out of the top of his wrap, and a big thick beard, black but turning to grey.

‘We could send them a message,’ suggested Gaia. ‘We could send the other side a message, telling them to come here and talk.’

Leader Harry shook his head. ‘They’ll think it’s a trick.’

‘Even if they can hear my voice?’ asked Gaia.

She took a little black square from out of a pocket in her shiny wrap, and spoke softly to it as if it was alive.

‘Now touch it here,’ she told Harry, handing it over to him.

Harry took the thing from her, carefully carefully like he thought it might be hot, and touched it where she’d told him to. All at once her voice came out of it, as loud as if she was really speaking. The people crowded round gasped in amazement, and Harry almost dropped the thing.

‘Hello Johnfolk,’ said Gaia’s voice from the little black square, ‘this is Gaia from Earth. Three of us have come in a starship. Please stop fighting now and come to meet us.’

Leader Harry turned to his father, and then to Headman Newjohn and Starlight. All three of them nodded.

‘I’ll get a buck and some men and take it over there right now,’ he said. ‘I’ll bring their leaders back with me.’

Thirty

So Leader Harry and eight of his guards began their journey back towards the Dark and Wide Forest beyond, and the Earth people tried to rest. Strongheart gave them one of his big square shelters in Brooklyn. It had its own fence round it, with guards to watch over it, and inside the fence, us Michael’s Place people, all thirty of us, built little shelters of our own round the big shelter where the Earth people slept. So we kind of had our own little cluster again, except that where once we’d had our little stone circle in middle, now we had people: people who weren’t just reminders of Earth, but came from Earth themselves.

All round the fence, people stood and stared. They knew to keep quiet, because the Earth people were sleeping, but even so they couldn’t help murmuring and whispering, and once in a while even singing, in soft low voices, some old Earth song like ‘Come Tree Row’.